


The House in Soho

by girlswholikegirlsruletheworld



Series: The All Too Common Man [1]
Category: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, Implied Smut, Jekyll and Hyde, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-14
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:21:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25254547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/girlswholikegirlsruletheworld/pseuds/girlswholikegirlsruletheworld
Summary: "'And apropos, you should have my adress.' And he gave a number of a street in Soho." Chapter 2, The Search for Mr. Hyde.How did Hyde react when Jekyll bought him a house? (Separation AU)
Relationships: Edward Hyde & Henry Jekyll, Edward Hyde/Dr. Henry Jekyll
Series: The All Too Common Man [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1829626
Comments: 4
Kudos: 38





	The House in Soho

**Author's Note:**

> another bit of my unfinished jekyde fic. this was supposed to be chapter 1.

"Henry! Are you mad!" cried a man, short and lean and with motions that made him seem much bigger than his small stature, as he without preamble slammed the door of a large, round cabinet open. Scarcely did the banging sound of the door cease before he marched with a wild fury into the room and took, by his shirt front, the doctor who had whipped about, bewildered, at the commotion.

The man who had entered was very thin, almost gaunt, as though he had been ill-nourished in his youth and even in adulthood his stunted growth had prevented any true progress in either his height or his mass. He was dressed very plainly and also very darkly, with a large coat that seemed to swallow into it any definition of the man's body. His fingers were thin and long, like the arms of a spider, and yet very strongly they gripped that which had captured both the fury and the awe of the man.

The doctor, however, seemed not to be disturbed, neither by the fierce anger of his sudden visitor, nor by the darkness or sharpness in the man's body and hands. "Why, Edward," he said, with a voice that was light and, if one were to listen closely, they might hear a note of coy in his tone. "I thought you were the madman among us? What could I have done?"

"The house, you hopeless thing!" the man screamed, with a deep flush upon his face, and he looked torn between bashful glee and a great embarrassment and shame. "You can't — what were you thinking? You know I do not stay with you for your fortune nor your name, and you know that it is dangerous for your character to be traced to someone like me!"

The doctor frowned. "I thought you cared little for character and reputation, Edward," he admonished, and with glinting and bright green eyes, the man glared up at him. He was shorter by a head, at least, than the doctor, and still his eyes made the doctor both shudder and smile.

"You're too right about that," Edward growled, and his voice sounded as though he had rocks caught in his throat and magma coating his tongue. His grip on the doctor lightened only barely, but his gaze was not any less intense or bewildered. "But you do. Very, very oddly, and far more perhaps than the inflated oafs you call friends, you care for your character. And if something is important to you, regardless of how useless and pigeon-livered I think it is, then I must still have some regard for it. For your sake, if not mine."

"And I demand, now, that you stop leading me about and explain yourself!" Edward shrieked again, one corded finger jabbing against the centre of the doctor's chest. "Why — why would you take and furnish a house for me! I don't — I don't—"

Chuckling, the doctor removed from his chest the man's hand, and with arms much bigger than Edward's, he took the young man into his embrace. "Oh, hush, Hyde," he said, and though he meant to sound teasing, even his face felt very warm. "I know it well, and so do you, that you like it when I provide for you. And I do, after all, have the means and the desire to care as best as I can for you. There is no argument against that." And he kissed the man on his cheek, very gently and very chastely, for in a half-hearted indignance, Hyde pushed his head away.

"You're a grotesquely saccharine fool, Henry Jekyll," Hyde grumbled, though his tone was fond and light, and his cheeks were lit up, very lightly, with a dusty red flush. Jekyll burst into laughter, soft, yes, but also airy and light and peaceful. "And I — I thank you, you stupid, stupid man. Thank you. It's a dangerous thing, yes, a very foolish thing to have done, but I — you have my gratitude. And my love. Much of it. So much of my love."

"Are you so sure, love?" Jekyll asked. Along his table, they moved, so that Hyde was leaning against the edge of the desk and Jekyll was leaning over him, his large hands carefully placed on the waist of the younger man. Softly and teasingly, as he bumped Hyde's sharp nose gently with his own, he said, "It seems you've nothing but insults to repay me for my generosity."

"And you deserve it," Hyde grunted, but there was no more a hissing or anger or even an indignance in his voice. There only was a fond exasperation, and also, as he spoke next, a coy manner of tone that would make any man of any age either blush in shame and filth, or enrage them, for he was not anything like the pious and sober men of the Royal Society. "Besides, darling, I doubt that it is an urge to provide for me that caused this, but your own desire for a private place, free of judging eye or ear, for us both to have our fun, yes?"

A harsh blush burned upon the face of the doctor. He thought that he should no longer flush at his partner's words, for it had been many years since he had first kissed the man, and even longer since they had first met, but the free and coquettish and wild way that Hyde spoke in never failed to make him feel, so strongly, worlds and emotions rebuked, most likely, by the world beyond his cabinet. "What of it?" he asked, and Hyde let out a cackle, wild and reckless and without a trace of regret.

"Oh, Doctor," Hyde sang, like a siren, "what ruin I've made of you!" Again, he laughed, and planted a firm kiss against the mouth of his partner. "Well, that's that situation resolved. Shall we begin our study? You are done with all your business for the day, yes?"

"Indeed, although of course I still have much work to do," Jekyll answered, and from the desk he cleared the papers and bottles and prescriptions of the day's work, getting out instead a thick, brown book that he had much used when he was younger, studying in school and college. "But how do you know? Have you been following me?"

"Oh, don't flatter yourself," Hyde said, though it was with a grin akin to the snarl of a wolf, that he regarded Jekyll. "What gentleman would do such a secretive and devious thing?"

Jekyll bit out a laugh. "You're no gentleman, Hyde," he said, and he said it in the sweetest tone he could manage.

Hyde's answer was but an amorous wink, as he deposited his coat and hat by the bookshelves and strutted over to the doctor. He had taken, from the shelves also, a notebook that was only half full, but filled with plenty of notes on the various rigors and rules and ideas of chemistry.

He'd been studying under Jekyll since they'd first met, years and years ago, and never having had the pleasure of education in his life before then, Hyde proved to be a very eager and quick student. He was learning, rather swiftly, not only the names and identifications and structures of various compounds and elements, but also their applications and uses in medicine. They met often, for these studies of theirs, though Hyde would not deny that their encounters were not very strictly study alone. It was sure, most of the time, that plenty of their time was also filled with romantic words and gestures, as well as sarcastic banter.

He imagined it was freeing for the doctor, to have someone around him who was free and wild and reckless, and without the reservations and sensibilities of his dear Victorian colleagues. Hyde himself had never particularly care for such frivolities; he rather liked his uncouth and lunatic ways, and he delighted often to see the Jekyll loosen the binds that held him to his reputation and character, and instead find, sometimes, that it was fruitful to have fun and to be disengaged from the rules of the community.

Still, it was a great pleasure indeed, having the giving side of the good doctor turned against him. It was not a thing be doubted, the sincerity in kindness and sweetness that Jekyll always seemed to carry about him, and though Jekyll always seemed to think himself more of a madman with a mask rather a man truly good at heart, Hyde rather found himself thrilled by the dual nature of his lover. He, himself, was someone who any respectable man would scarcely describe as honest or honourable, or in any way good. He was nameless and without a family, with scarcely any supposedly honoured friends, and most his companionship was founded with those who, similar to him, existed beyond the world of the wealthy, healthy, and good. It was difficult at times to look into himself, and then to look at Jekyll, and believe that they were in love.

Hyde, at the thought, abandoned his notes to stare at his partner. Jekyll was at the business table still, a good distance away from the chair on which Hyde had planted himself, hunched over papers and letters and work, the sort of which Hyde thought he'd never understand. Sometimes, he looked up if Hyde called him to explain something that the book could not, and sometimes he would look up of his own accord to send Hyde one of his beautiful, charming smiles. He was a tall man, with a big, fine build, though that was often hidden by loose clothes and suits, and both his hair and eyes seemed to be the same shade of dusty, earthy brown. Looking at him, Hyde could ill guess the doctor's age, and only foreknowledge told him that Jekyll was about the age of thirty, perhaps four or three years older than Hyde himself. He only looked younger, however, and more alive, more beautiful, and more coloured when he was laughing or teasing or crying with Hyde.

He sighed to think that such a lovely man had so long hidden himself from the eyes of the world out of nothing more than fear of judging eyes. It was rather unfair to deny beauty for the sake of shame.

At his sigh, Jekyll chuckled, though he did not yet take his eyes off his work. "I can feel your eyes upon me," he said, and added, as though Hyde's thoughts were plagued by study and not awe, "Are you puzzled by anything? What could I do?"

Hyde smiled, and with a couple of strides, he stood by Jekyll's chair, close enough that he could hold Jekyll by his shoulders from behind. "No, nothing of the sort," he whispered, close by the doctor's ear, and a wave of feeling swelled within him when Jekyll shuddered at the feel of his breath. "Only thoughts of how breathtaking you are, my love."

Jekyll hummed. Clearly there was a smile spreading on his lips, and although he refused still to remove his gaze from his papers, his hand had paused in its motions. "Flatterer," he said, leaning into Hyde when the younger man began to kiss at his neck and cheek and temple. "Are you done with your studies for the day, then?"

Outside the cabinet windows, the sky was turning a dark prussian blue, and against it, the waning moon glowed a very soft and very lazy yellow, as if it, too, was sleepy, and could not wait until the last of the men in the city went off to rest and sleep. And inside the cabinet, the clock was nearing eleven. "I think so, yes," was Hyde's cool and almost detached answer. "Are you free to come and sleep soon, or can you not yet bear to leave your work?"

The doctor raised one fine eyebrow, turning his head to the side to meet Hyde's eyes. "It's rather an early hour," he remarked. "If I recall, you don't usually go to bed until the sun is very close to dawning." Still, though his words might seem like he was trying to draw distance between himself and Hyde, his body betrayed him, for closer to him yet he pulled the young man, until Hyde was sat firmly upon his lap and their arms were wound tight around one another.

"Yes, and don't you often berate me for it," Hyde grumbled, as he was wont to do, and Jekyll smothered a laugh against his hair. It was matted and sticky, as though it had been days since it was washed, which it very well may have been. Jekyll took care to remember that they would bathe together the next morning, if only to ensure that Hyde was diligent in caring for himself. "Shouldn't you be happy, doctor, that for once I am following your advice and being a good patient?"

As he spoke, Hyde fluttered his eyes, like the girls of the red districts did when they sought out their prey, and Jekyll chuckled. It was very likely that that was where Hyde picked up his flirtatious antics and coquettish ways. "That's quite a low bar," the doctor declared, but even as he spoke, he was lifting Hyde up into his arms, and crossing out of the cabinet and towards the court, towards his own house and bedroom, "but I suppose I should be grateful for the smaller pleasures in your actions, yes?"

Hyde laughed, a crisp and white hot sound in the silent, lukewarm night, as he climbed down from Jekyll's hold before anyone could lay eyes on them. "Oh, Henry, my love!" he declared, though very softly, as they approached the doctor's own quarters, "I think you'll find my actions to be no small pleasure, if I should put my mind to it, and should you allow it."

Behind himself, and after Hyde had slipped into the room with him, Jekyll locked the door and assured that the windows were shut and the curtains drawn. When he turned, the mischievous man met him suddenly with a firm and hard kiss, followed very swiftly by Hyde's hands moving to undo the buttons of Jekyll's white, woolen shirt. "Edward," Jekyll cried, when Hyde allowed him some reprieve to breathe, though he seemed not to know what to say afterward. Hyde grinned like either a fox, or a wolf with teeth bared approaching his prey.

"Why, my doctor," he whispered, against Jekyll's ear, meant for no one but his lover to hear, as he bared the man's skin to his touch, "look at you, so debauched, so dishonoured, and so, so very sinful. What would your proper and refined colleagues say, to see you like this?"

"They — they will say nothing," gasped Jekyll, his lungs feeling as though they were on fire and his heart, as if it had been struck by lightning. It seemed indeed, with Hyde's proximity, that they could be but one man and one heart and one soul. "No one will see me this way. No one but you."

The white hot grin that lit up Hyde's face like a volcano broadened even more. "Quite right, Henry Jekyll," he growled, like a prowling beast, and with great passion and lust and love, he pounced upon his prey.

It was many hours later, as the sun was close to dawning, that they had gone to sleep, very much in peace, and very much in love. Neither of them said too much, not after their exertions, but very gladly they rolled into one another's embrace, both wishing perhaps to stay there forever, despite knowing that their time would not last. And furthermore, only a few hours after they had fallen asleep, they woke.

Hyde woke first, particularly wary of the sudden light that would brighten the room despite the drawn curtains. But he did not leave the bed yet, instead choosing to stay longer in the arms of his lover. For he was happy, yes, very happy with the man, and he had much reason to believe that Jekyll was equally happy with him; indeed, happier than he otherwise would be without. And though Hyde himself had a great love of life, and a great dislike for death, or the very thought of it, he knew Jekyll, at times, could be prone to think otherwise of his own situation.

With Hyde by him, the man thought, perhaps Jekyll would, more often that he would not, wake to a life of joy and happiness and hope.

He could only hope that he would be by Hyde forever.


End file.
